Tibco (NASDAQ: TIBX) trades at a discount to many of its direct competitors, despite being one of the few profitable players in the space.

In an exclusive interview with Benzinga, Tibco CEO Vivek Ranadive recently discussed how Tibco’s value differs from what the market is currently assigning. In previous interviews, Ranadive has called shares at $20 the best buying opportunity since the stock was trading at $5.

Valuation

“I think that clearly there is a huge discrepancy in valuation,” stated Ranadive. Ranadive specifically noted Tableau (NYSE: DATA), the biggest competitor to Tibco’s primary growth engine, Spotfire. Tableau’s price-to-sales and PE ratios are 11.7 and 2,084. Tibco, on the other hand, trades at just 3.1 times sales and 40.2 times earnings.

The CEO further emphasised that the discrepancy in valuation exists, although most competitors "have never made a profit and it appears unlikely that they will." Tableau reported 82 percent sales growth in the most recent quarter, but was unprofitable. Tibco’s revenue increased 2.6 percent during the same quarter.